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26th November 2024

bbc.co.uk/accessall

Access All – episode 135

Presented by Emma Tracey

EMMA- Alex Taylor, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ culture reporter, you have written a very successful article about Timmy, the disabled character from cult US satire cartoon, South Park. And you’ve had a massive response. Tell me about that?

ALEX- So, I kind of get haunted actually by the character in there. He’s only able to say his name. And obviously I’m Alex, he’s in a chair, as am I, like in a wheelchair. And however, the past maybe it’s a year and a half now, if I’m out and about I’m often had his name hurled at me as kind of a harassment. 

EMMA- And how does that make you feel, Alex?

ALEX- It first happened to me as a kid, like at school, and then I didn’t have it all for maybe a decade or more, and then it started to come back. And hearing it again I’m not really angry now or get upset as much; I’m kind of more just annoyed it’s happening again.  

EMMA- So, why are people calling you Timmy now, like 24 years after Timmy was at the height of his fame and everybody was watching him on TV?

ALEX- Well, [laughs] that’s what I was asking myself. The kids who were hurling it at me weren’t even around when I was first watching it. It actually turns out it’s on TikTok.

EMMA- So, people are taking the audio of Timmy from South Park, saying his name in the way that he says it, and they’re using it for lots of different videos, so using the audio for different…?

ALEX- Yes.

EMMA- And are they often abusive, mean videos or are they just all sorts of things? 

ALEX- Largely it’s order to mock him and others who are in wheelchairs. 

EMMA- And your article got millions of readers and you got a massive response to it, didn’t you? 

ALEX- Yes.

EMMA- What were people telling you? 

ALEX- Many of the people who answered me back who are disabled have said, ‘Wow, I’ve heard it happening a lot more and I haven’t understood how or why, and now, because of TikTok, I’ve understood what’s happening’. And that has also helped me in many ways. 

EMMA- When Timmy was popular in South Park what kind of a depiction of disability was he? Was he mocking? So, it’s a cartoon, right, so it’s a drawing. 

ALEX- Yeah.

EMMA- Was he mocking disabled people? What kind of a depiction was he making? 

ALEX- No. I think it’s important here that we understand he operates on two levels. So, you have him as the character unable to say his name. But also if you look at how he’s actually handled in the show and what happens in the storylines he’s involved in he’s accepted, he’s outgoing and he even ends up in all sorts of mischief, and that’s even involved him ending up as a singer of a heavy metal band. 

EMMA- Brilliant. So, he’s a multi-layered, multi-faceted character, but this is the thing that’s been picked up on. 

ALEX- Yeah.

EMMA- Listeners, if you’ve had a similar experience to Alex, if you’ve had a name called at you in the street recently that was from your childhood due to social media, let me know. Email accessall@bbc.co.uk, or send us a message 0330 123 9480. Alex Taylor, at the end of the pre intro we always do an ‘on with the show’ together. Are you ready to say it with me?

ALEX- Yes.

BOTH- On with the show!

MUSIC- Theme music.

EMMA- Hello, I’m Emma Tracey, and this is Access All, the podcast asking the questions that are important to you. This time, we look into Prime Minister, Sir Kier Starmer’s new proposals around getting more people off benefits and into work. We also look at some recent data which says that disabled kids in care and disabled care leavers might be missing out on vital support. And because we love to bring the joy here on Access All, children’s author and CBeebies presenter, George Webster, has Down’s Syndrome and he brings the joy in spades:

[Clip]

FEMALE- Where’s Deejay Christmas?

GEORGE- Yes, let’s all check Deejay! [Cheers]

[End of clip]

EMMA- He chats to me about writing books, presenting TV to small children, and what makes him happy. 

This week Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has promised to get more people into work with plans to overhaul Job Centres and with more mental health funding. Details of what the reforms will mean in practice have not been confirmed, and a review of sickness benefits will not begin until next year. Catherine Parsons oversees the Big Issue’s specialist employment service, Big Issue Recruit, which helps people to find work who face barriers, including people who are homeless, ex-offenders and those with mental health issues. She joins me now. Hi Catherine. 

CATHERINE- Hi, how are you doing? 

EMMA- I’m well, thank you. What’s your reaction to the government’s most recent proposals about getting more people working? 

CATHERINE- So, obviously we’re not clear yet about all of the detail of the proposals. At Big Issue we value work, and a lot of the work that we do is around supporting people into employment. What we would want the government to do is move away from the unhealthy benefit war rhetoric, which creates distrust for people who are genuinely motivated to seek work. We work with hundreds of people a year and they have barriers that prevent them accessing work, and they need the right support rather than being subject to sanctions. 

EMMA- So, you’ve mentioned sanctions there. What is the rhetoric that you’re alluding to there? 

CATHERINE- We know that the reality for a lot of people is more complicated than wanting or not wanting to work. It’s about supporting people to build the right skills and confidence to enable them to enter the workplace. And also people need ongoing support to keep a job once they have moved into employment. 

EMMA- And are those the best ways, do you feel, of getting people off benefits? Because of course the government will say that they need to get more people into work for the country to experience growth. 

CATHERINE- And we would agree with that. We think that the right work is important for everyone to feel a sense of belonging and pride within their community, as well as the financial benefits that come with work. But we know that people need time and support. So, at Big Issue Recruit we have job coaches that work with people on a one-to-one basis to identify their skills, their strengths, their assets, to build their confidence, to build trust. Many of the people we work with have worked with Job Centres, but have no trust in that system, so we welcome the reform. 

EMMA- Okay. So, you mentioned Big Issue Recruit there; how does it work? Tell me a bit about once people have found a job, how do you support them then?  

CATHERINE- So, we’ll work with employers to make sure that their workplace is a safe place and that we’re matching people with the right opportunities. And we’ll work with candidates to give them the right skills and support. But we know that transitioning into work is very difficult for people. There are changes in their income, they have additional costs around travel and uniform or clothes that they need to buy, and so we provide support and ongoing contact with both the employer and with the employee to make sure that that transition is successful. And 90% of our candidates are still successfully working within the job that we’ve placed them six months after they’ve started work. 

EMMA- And what about the mental health funding that’s being suggested, put forward, is that enough? They’ve said they want to get 2 million more people into work in a certain timeline; will the funding match the timeline they have, do you think? 

CATHERINE- Well, we know that there’s more proposals to come in the next few months around how the government wants to support people that have a wide range of health issues to get into work. Definitely we would welcome investment into tailored mental health support. A lot of the people we work with they have issues around anxiety and confidence, and that doesn’t necessarily need a health intervention; that needs the kind of one-to-one support and dedicated contact that we are able to provide. 

EMMA- Okay. So, the funding needs to be targeted into these areas? 

CATHERINE- I think so. We know that people have skills gaps that some people have. Some people have very practical barriers to work. The best way to support people into work is in a very personalised and tailored approach, and that does take time and that does investment. It also takes time to work with employers to make sure that they’re providing the right work environment for people. 

EMMA- In your experience, and you’ve worked with lots of people with lots of different barriers, is it harder for disabled people and people with mental health issues and people who are neurodivergent to find and retain work? 

CATHERINE- There are definite challenges for those groups of people. And obviously everyone we work with is a complicated intersection of different needs. And so we have had some success with supporting people with health challenges into work. We have different sets of challenges where people have maybe a previous involvement in the criminal justice system. 

EMMA- But is it harder for you to place and support a disabled person? 

CATHERINE- It depends what people’s aspirations are. I wouldn’t say that a particular type of person is any harder or easier than another type of person. There are absolutely definitely barriers around finding and keeping work for people that have a range of health conditions. 

EMMA- But that’s interesting that you talk about aspirations, because of some disabled people’s education, because of their experiences at the Job Centre, because of their life experiences and discrimination, sometimes their aspirations are different to non-disabled people as well. Is it about working with that too?

CATHERINE- Yeah, and that’s true for a range of people; people’s expectations of themselves have been conditioned by what other people expect of them. And so some of the work that we try to do is around building up people’s ambitions for themselves as well as challenging other people’s expectations about what is possible and how people can thrive in the workplace. 

EMMA- Catherine, it’s so interesting to hear about different ways disabled people and people with other barriers are helped into work and supported at work. I think it’s really important for us to build up a picture and to explain to people who might not know why so many disabled people cannot work or cannot find work. So, thank you so much for explaining what you do. 

CATHERINE- That’s okay. Thank you for giving us the chance to tell you. 

EMMA- Catherine Parsons, thank you. 

MUSIC-

EMMA- Leaving foster care or a children’s home can be really stressful for young people in that situation when they turn 18. But it’s even more confusing if those young people are disabled. New data from Coram Voice, a children’s rights organisation, says that local authorities record 13% of care leavers as being disabled; whereas 27% of those care leavers self-identify as being disabled or neurodivergent. That means that many of them could be missing out on crucial support. Dr Claire Baker crunched the data, and she’s with us. Hi, Dr Claire.

CLAIRE- Morning, hi everyone. 

EMMA- As is Susan Lake, who’s disabled and autistic, and left the care system a few years ago. Susan, we’ll start with you. What was your experience in care like? And what was the support like for your disabilities?

SUSAN- I’d say the support was up and down. In terms of autism there was no support because my local CAMHS team, the children and adolescent mental health service, they refused to diagnosed me with autism because they feared I would be moved children's home again, so they wouldn’t put me on the waiting list for a diagnosis assessment home which was a bit of a problem obviously, because that impacted my education, my wellbeing, my understanding of myself. 

EMMA- You have physical impairments as well, what was the support like for them? 

SUSAN- It was difficult because there wasn’t always enough staffing to take me to, like, physiotherapy. I know when I went into care they said that I had no special educational needs and no long-term disabilities, despite having a traumatic brain injury with a visual impairment. 

EMMA- Wow. So, what impact do you think that had on your life not having your disabilities recognised?

SUSAN- It made it harder for me to identify myself as a disabled person who has different access needs to non-disabled people. I hated the way I was because I didn’t have any support around my needs. 

EMMA- You felt different and uncomfortable about being who you were?

SUSAN- Yeah, absolutely. I was excluded from mainstream education and I was placed into special educational needs department. But even then I don’t think I got enough support because of having no autism assessment meant I couldn’t access autistic specific support, and I went on to fail all of my GCSEs, when I’m actually quite academic. 

EMMA- And how did you eventually get diagnosed autistic? 

SUSAN- When I turned 18 with the help of my leaving care worker, we went to the GP and asked for a referral to the adult team. They agreed that I should be referred. I was put on a five-year waiting list, and then when I got accepted into my degree I was prioritised, so I waited three years instead and got diagnosed at 21.

EMMA- And what difference did that make?

SUSAN- I got a specialist mentor at university, so someone to talk to twice a week who went through coping mechanisms, timetabling for my essays.

EMMA- That’s great. I just want to go back to when you were 16. Is it right that people in care between 16 and 18 have to go to their own medical appointments by themselves? 

SUSAN- It doesn’t happen if you’re in foster care, but if you’re in residential you go on something called Independence. You get a budget of £56 a week and you have to shop for yourself, go to your appointments yourself, almost be an adult without the age.

EMMA- And with your impairments and being autistic how did that go for you? 

SUSAN- I struggled to go to all these appointments on my own so I just stopped going. 

EMMA- Really? So, you missed out on lots of healthcare? 

SUSAN- Yeah. At the time I didn’t really understand the gravity of the situation. But looking back I now realise that I was quite let down, and I wish I’d fought the system more. But that’s why I want to change it for the future generations. 

EMMA- Yeah. You know what, you are here now and you’re 26, and it’s a few years on for that. and I’m going to come back to you in a few minutes to find out how that has all gone for you since. But it sounds like you’re not the only person who does feel let down by the system. Let me just give you some stats before we go on to Dr Claire Baker. Coram Voice, the chidlren’s rights organisation, collected data from 130 local authorities in England and they responded to freedom of information requests. They also used survey responses from 8,000 young people. And this all revealed that 11% of the 76,000 children in care were recorded as being disabled, and that is the same proportion as in the general population. But only 13% of care leavers were recorded as disabled, and that’s lower than the general population which is around 15.6%. And actually 27% of those care leavers self-identified as being disabled. That is quite a big gap, Dr Claire Baker, that’s a 14% gap. What’s gone on there? 

CLAIRE- Yeah, it really is, isn’t it? And I think the first thing that’s shocking about that is we had to go and look for these numbers really. So, the government are not publishing data on disability in relation to children in care and care leavers, despite acting as their parents.

EMMA- It’s a big discrepancy. 

CLAIRE- I think some of it’s linked to definitions of disability. So, when we spoke to professionals as well they were worried about this, and they said there’s no consistent way of recording this. And they were also quite honest and said, we don’t always feel comfortable and confident talking about disability, so they said there might be a tendency to focus on what is sometimes seen as more clearcut. There was maybe some training gaps. They didn’t always link up as good as they could with their adult service colleagues, so we found gaps there. So, as Susan was talking about, as you grow older you might change service remit, so you might need to change who’s providing the support. And that’s a real risk that children fall through these gaps, they don’t meet thresholds for adult services. So, we’re really worried about this issue.

EMMA- Yeah, because actually transitioning from childhood services to adult services again is really, really difficult if you’re a disabled young person with massive amount of support and drive behind your case. We were just talking about that really recently on the podcast, so I can’t even imagine how tricky it is when you have to advocate for yourself and when the services have to join themselves up. I just wondered, what were the most common disabilities, impairments that young people reported in the survey?

CLAIRE- It was really rare that anybody wrote just one thing; so lots of things coexisting. But young people, and these are young adults as they’re leaving the care system, were writing things around autism, around neurodiversity. If we’ve got such a discrepancy in our numbers are we really making sure our services are responsive and flexible to the lived experience of our children? So, the support we provided does it match up to how young people are doing day to day?

EMMA- And is that the main reason then why it matters whether we know this data or not?

CLAIRE- Yeah, I think if we’re not even getting the basics right and counting the numbers then there’s a risk we don’t identify this group. They’re under-recorded, they’re invisible, and the services we provide don’t meet their needs. And we don’t know how they’re doing, their experiences. Our evidence from the Bright Spot survey, which is a large wellbeing survey we do, shows that this group of care leavers compared to other care leavers, so care leavers with a disability, were really worried, much lower wellbeing, feeling lonely, not feeling safe and settled where they live. So, we can’t necessarily track their experiences, and most importantly we can’t uphold their rights. 

EMMA- So, you’ve got this new data now about 27% of care leavers self-identifying as disabled, what needs to happen next?

CLAIRE- So, we’ve got a number of recommendations for government and for local authorities. And I think they fall into two main areas: so the first one is get on with improving the data you collect, so use the data, understand it, get young people involved. And then the second link to that is improving practice and policy and the services that we provide. So, making sure we all feel confident, we have the knowledge and skills we need, being more inclusive, really looking at those thresholds for additional support needs. Because it’s really serious stuff if we’ve got children falling through the gaps as they grow older.

EMMA- Susan, back to you, what would you like to see happen?

SUSAN- CAMHS has teams for looked after children, the LAC teams. I would like within those LAC teams to have diagnosis teams, so neuro disability teams that can fast track looked after children. If their argument is that they can’t diagnose because of the risk of them moving they should then have a faster service. Because these are children who are most vulnerable.

EMMA- Susan, what has life been like for you since you left the care system and where has it taken you? 

SUSAN- So, it’s been ten years for me and I’ve got my own place. I’ve lived in my own place for eight years now. It’s been the longest place I’ve ever lived in one place so it’s great. 

EMMA- So, it’s really special to you? 

SUSAN- Absolutely. I’ve finally decorated, because normally I wouldn’t decorate anywhere because just fear of moving on again, I didn’t see the point in unpacking almost. But all the boxes are unpacked and I’ve finally decorated within the last year, so that’s been great. 

EMMA- That’s amazing. 

SUSAN- Yeah.

EMMA- So, you’ve been able to figure out what you like and what you want on your walls and everything. And then you’ve been to university?

SUSAN- Yeah, I completed my undergrad in international relations and politics, and I’ve just finished my master’s in international security. And I’m now applying for a PhD. 

EMMA- Amazing, Susan. You are academic. You said you were and you definitely are. Well, good luck with the PhD and whatever comes next. 

SUSAN- Thank you. 

EMMA- It’s the Department of Education who oversees young people in care, so we asked them about the discrepancy around disability and they told us: ‘We are currently reviewing gaps in data for looked after children and identifying ways to address them’. Do you know, the experiences of young disabled people in care or care leavers is a subject that we really want to come back to and keep in touch with on Access All, so if you have experiences to share or if there’s another aspect of this you think we should be talking about please do get in touch with us. Email accessall@bbc.co.uk, or you can find us on the socials, Instagram and X @³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖAccessAll. Thank you so much to Susan and to Dr Claire Baker. 

MUSIC-

EMMA- Now, when my kids were wee CBeebies was a huge part of our lives. We watched lots of the shows together. So many were audio described which is absolutely brilliant for me because the children couldn’t talk and couldn’t tell me what was going on. We learned a lot and we had a lot of fun. But the bits between the shows were just as important, and we all fell in love with the presenters. Now, one of my highlights of this year, and there have been many, was going to the CBeebies House set where all the links are recorded between the shows and speaking to one of their presenters. It’s George Webster, he’s got Down’s syndrome; he’s the first ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ children’s presenter with Down’s syndrome. But there are so many more strings to this guy’s bow, and he has an opinion on everything. He’s absolutely phenomenal. I had such a good time, I even got to sit in the bedtime story chair. Life goals made. Here’s George:

I am with George Webster in the very, very famous CBeebies House. Now, George is the very first ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ children’s presenter with Down’s syndrome, so it’s really, really cool to be with such a trailblazer in a place that means so much to so many small children and big people who used to be small children, and their grown-ups. It’s such a joy. George Webster, you’re on Access All, thank you for joining me. 

GEORGE- Thank you so much, Emma. I’ve been looking to it. 

EMMA- Oh, I’ve been looking forward to talking to you for ages, because you’ve got so, so many things going on, which we’re going to get to. But first I’m just going to ask you to describe where we are right now. 

GEORGE- So, right now we are in the CBeebies House. It’s got lots of things going on. There’s a fridge, there’s Dodge’s kennel, there’s a door, we’ve got some books, we’ve got a sofa, lots of things going on right now. 

EMMA- And what happens in here? 

GEORGE- So, we film lots of content. We film content for Christmas, which we’re doing right now, we film all the links, we film show and tells. 

EMMA- So, you do all the bits in between the programmes in here? 

GEORGE- Yes, that’s right. It’s the links in between the programmes. 

EMMA- Okay. And you dance and you sing and you play and you chat.

GEORGE- Yes.

EMMA- That sounds like the perfect job. 

GEORGE- Yes, it so much fun, to me it’s not a job, it’s not work. It’s just fun.

EMMA- So, talk me through a work day on CBeebies, what happens? 

GEORGE- I get ready in my dressing room, I go to make-up and get my make-up done and then come into the studio. You go over the clips on an iPad a couple of times, and then we do a couple of rehearsals, and then we start to record. 

EMMA- Right. And I was watching you work today and you do all the links so quickly. A couple of little rehearsals and then you record them and then you’re done. Such professionals, you really are. Tell me the story about how you got your CBeebies job. 

GEORGE- I came to Salford and I was in the studio and did an audition with another presenter called Rebecca.

EMMA- Oh, I love Rebecca! She’s one of my favourites. Sorry, I keep diverting you. Right, so you did a rehearsal with Rebecca. 

GEORGE- That was lots of fun. I did a few links and then a Smoothie link, there was a bedtime story. It was lots of fun, lots of fun. A month later I got a call from Claire saying that I’d got the job. 

EMMA- Brilliant. 

GEORGE- And I could burst with excitement, I was so excited I squealed down the phone. 

EMMA- Did you? It was like your perfect job. 

GEORGE- Yes, it’s so much fun and everyone’s so lovely. 

EMMA- Oh, that’s lovely when people say that that they work with their work family and everyone likes each other. What does having this job mean to you as a man with Down’s syndrome? 

GEORGE- It means a lot to me because when I was a kid there wasn’t anyone with Down’s syndrome on CBeebies, so I really wanted to be on CBeebies because of that reason, to have more representation. 

EMMA- Right, so you didn’t see yourself. Did you see anyone with Down’s syndrome on your TV as a child with Down’s syndrome?

GEORGE- Not really, no, not in kids TV, not in any TV. 

EMMA- It’s strange when you don’t see yourself, isn’t it? Or if when you see yourself it’s not real, you know, people aren’t acting like you think they will, it’s a bit disappointing, isn’t it?

GEORGE- Yeah. 

EMMA- Who did you look up to as a presenter? 

GEORGE- For me it was Justin Fletcher, Mr Tumble, because he used Makaton, and that’s how I first communicated. 

EMMA- That’s signing? 

GEORGE- Yes, it is. 

EMMA- How would you describe Makaton? 

GEORGE- Makaton is a type of sign communication where you sign some symbols to help communicate. 

EMMA- If you struggle to speak verbally? 

GEORGE- Yeah. Because I used Makaton before I spoke with words. 

EMMA- So, the signing, yes. 

GEORGE- Yes.

EMMA- So, you used Makaton before you could talk. What age were you when you started to speak words with your mouth? 

GEORGE- Three or four. 

EMMA- Right, so there were a couple of years there where you had plenty to say but weren’t able to say it with your mouth. 

GEORGE- Yeah. 

EMMA- What were your favourite signs then? 

GEORGE- Like, more food please [laughter], my favourite. And another one potty. 

EMMA- Okay. And Justin’s whole thing is Makaton, isn’t he? He does Mr Tumble, he’s a clown. So, you watched something special growing up. 

GEORGE- Yes.  

EMMA- And did you think I want to be a presenter? 

GEORGE- I did, yes, and I liked to perform when I was a kid. 

EMMA- Have you worked with Justin now? 

GEORGE- I have with Justin many times. He’s just such a lovely guy to work with. 

EMMA- People must recognise you, because you’ve done lots of live things and you’ve written books, which we’re going to talk about in a minute. people must recognise you when you’re out and about all the time. What do they say to you? 

GEORGE- They say that they’re really happy to see people like me on the TV. 

EMMA- And what I love about you, George, as well is that you don’t just want to represent and push forward yourself and people with Down’s syndrome, you also talked about people who have other impairments and other disabled people. Because you’ve co-authored two books. 

GEORGE- The first one is This Is Me, and that’s all about being different. It’s not a scary thing or a negative thing being different; being different is a great and positive thing, and we’re all unique and alternative in our own extra special ways. We have a character in a book, we’ve got one with an eye gaze machine, we’ve got someone with one arm. 

EMMA- So, the eye gaze machine is someone who doesn’t speak verbally with their mouth.

GEORGE- That’s right, yeah. 

EMMA- What do they do instead? 

GEORGE- They use their eyes and they use a machine that helps them talk. 

EMMA- Okay, so they gaze at a letter and it’s kind of like predictive text and they get the words and then they talk. 

GEORGE- It is, yes. 

EMMA- Amazing. And then someone with a missing arm as well. 

GEORGE- Yes, with one arm. And also someone with a birthmark. Also someone with a tablet and has, like, a sign on it. 

EMMA- Okay. And then you have kids who don’t have disabilities as well? 

GEORGE- Yes, because it’s really important for everyone to mix with everyone. And the thing with Why Not? is all about finding things that make you happy, and then that can make you glow.  

EMMA- Make you glow, I love that. So, what are the things that make you glow?

GEORGE- I’m always really positive. I like to make people laugh. I like to make new friends. 

EMMA- Can I be your friend? 

GEORGE- Yes, you can. 

EMMA- Thank you. And then you’ve got a second book for slightly older children? 

GEORGE- Yes, I’ve got another book coming out next year called George and the Mini Dragon, for older kids from six to eight. 

EMMA- How did you end up writing books then? 

GEORGE- I did a poem, and Claire wrote that poem. 

EMMA- Your friend Claire who found you and put you on CBeebies?

GEORGE- My best friend Claire did, yes. 

EMMA- Is this the poem that went viral? 

GEORGE- Yes, this is the poem that went viral. 

EMMA- Because we have a bit of that in the opening music of our podcast. So, every single week on Access All we hear you saying, ‘When I was born I was told I could anything’. 

GEORGE- That’s right, yes.

EMMA- Yeah, you say that every single week. So, you had the poem that Claire wrote, and then what happened next?

GEORGE- And then we had publishers got in touch, and I chose Scholastic to go with. They’re really nice, they’re really lovely. So, from that we created This Is Me, and that took about a year. And then I did the promo stuff and for Why Not?

EMMA- Okay, so Why Not? was your second book. 

GEORGE- Yes. 

EMMA- So, what was your job with the books?

GEORGE- I’m the author and Claire is the co-author, so we’ve been authoring on the books together. 

EMMA- So, do you sit together and have big chats about the stories? 

GEORGE- Yes, we do. Well, we have meetings on Zoom. 

EMMA- And do you get a choice on the pictures as well? 

GEORGE- Yes.

EMMA- And you were in the panto, which isn’t out yet. 

GEORGE- Yes.

EMMA- CBeebies panto. What’s the panto this year? 

GEORGE- This year’s Beauty and the Beast. And I play a fun part of a deejay. 

EMMA- Oh, a deejay, oh brilliant. 

GEORGE- Yes.

[Clip]

FEMALE- We have the tree, check. 

MALE- Check!

FEMALE- We have the crowds, check.

MALE- Check!

FEMALE- Where’s Deejay Christmas?

GEOGE- Let’s all check, Deejay. [Cheering] Join in and clap with me. [Music and clapping] I say Christmas, you say tree. Christmas. 

AUDIENCE- Tree.

GEORGE- Christmas.

AUDIENCE- Tree.

GEORGE- I say Christmas, you say tree. Christmas.

AUDIENCE- Tree.

GEORGE- Christmas.

AUDIENCE- Tree. [Cheering and applause]

[End of clip]

EMMA- What would you like to do next if you could choose anything? 

GEORGE- Ooh. Well, I’d definitely love to do more CBeebies, definitely. More books. And a lot more acting because I love my films, so I’d love to do a film like Marvel. 

EMMA- Would you? 

GEORGE- Yes, I’m a Marvel superfan. 

EMMA- What would be your favourite character to play? 

GEORGE- Ooh. If they’re casting for Thor I’d be Thor. 

EMMA- Amazing. What’s Thor like? 

GEORGE- He’s really cool. He’s strong. I like to go to the gym as well. 

EMMA- You do? 

GEORGE- Yeah. 

EMMA- Do you ever sleep, George?

GEORGE- I do sleep, yes [laughter] I do sleep. 

EMMA- George Webster, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for letting me interview you in CBeebies House. 

GEORGE- Thank you so much, Emma. 

MUSIC-

EMMA- And you can see George Webster in the CBeebies panto, Beauty and the Beast, which is in cinemas from the 22nd November, and it’s on your telly on CBeebies and on iPlayer around Christmas time. 

That is almost it for Access All this week, and what a whirlwind it has been. Thank you to all of my guests, and to you for listening and for getting in touch and talking to me on the messages and on the emails and on the social media. I really, really, really love hearing from you. Remember we were talking to Reece Finnigan about accessible weddings the other week? Well, Anna got in touch to tell me about her fabulously wheelchair friendly, access, assistance dog friendly wedding story. She says that she had a specially shaped bouquet that could sit on her lap, and that her assistance dog was her maid of honour and her ringbearer. So, they had a special fancy collar they attached the corsage to that, the rings were attached to it directly. What a lovely story. Be like Anna from Southampton, get in touch with us. We absolutely love to hear from you. And the year is drawing to a close so we are looking for your disability moment of 2024. You can email accessall@bbc.co.uk, you can send us a voice message or a text message on WhatsApp, started with the word Access so that we can find it more easily, and send it to 0330 123 9480. And we are @³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖAccessAll on social media. Subscribe to us on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sounds if you haven’t already, and we’ll see you next time. Bye. 

[Trailer for The Today Podcast]

AMOL- Hello, it’s Amol Rajan here. 

NICK- And it’s Nick Robinson. And we want to tell you about The Today Podcast from ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4. 

AMOL- Yes, this is where we go deeper into the sort of journalism that you hear on Today, exploring one big story with more space for insight and context. We hear from a key voice each week, a leader in their field, be they a spy chief, a historian, a judge, a politician, all with something unique to say. And we make sure they’ve got the time and space to say it. 

FEMALE- The WhatsApp’s show the character of the men who were running our country at that point. 

FEMALE- Trump is probably going to beat Joe Biden because he is a force of nature. 

FEMALE- If the next scan says nothing is working I might buzz off to Zurich. 

NICK- We give you our take as well and lift the lid just a little bit on how The Today programme actually works. 

AMOL- That is The Today Podcast. Listen now on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sounds. And subscribe.